


[fine again]

by Yuki119drabbles



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama & Romance, F/M, Mutual Pining, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:21:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22076122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuki119drabbles/pseuds/Yuki119drabbles
Summary: In the midst of war, Rey and Kylo must figure out why their Force Bond only grows stronger.Follows canon events starting from The Last Jedi through The Rise of Skywalker.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is what I hope will be a fun story to help me deal with TROS giving me a Ben Solo smile and immediately taking it away.
> 
> Unbeta'd. We die like men.

***

Rey’s stomach turned and she could not help but feel the blaring presence of eyes upon her face. The intense urge to run dredged up inside her, begged her legs to move, but swift hands grabbed her blaster instead, steadying it in the direction of the invisible threat. The skin prickled on the back of her neck, a chill raised gooseflesh where previously there was none. She blinked once, twice, and suddenly she was staring across the bridge of Starkiller Base into the pale face of Kylo Ren, equally blinking, equally confused, features bright, intense, broken — and for a moment — completely and utterly honest.

Rey jumped up immediately — her quiet seat on the stone bench outside her Ahch-To hut no longer the safe haven it had been seconds before. “Why are you here?!” she yelled, voice brisk and too loud in the cool morning air, the echo of her heartbeat pounded in her eardrums, nearly deafening. Rey's legs refused to move, refused to retreat or advance in any direction, so she settled for digging the worn soles of her boots into the gravel, grinding them so hard into the rocks she hoped they would weigh her down enough and force her to stand her ground.

Curiously, Kylo Ren moved toward her, the heel of his boots clicking on the hard tile floors of Starkiller Base, fluorescent lighting casting down harshly on his face. “You’re not doing this, the effort would kill you," he muttered out loud, brows furrowed into a sharp line on his forehead, amber eyes wide as they roved over her features — to the flyaways of her dark hair and the downturned slant of her brows. "Why is the force connecting us?” Kylo urged, voice deep and low in the air, out of place next to the chirps of seagulls and the rush of ocean she was surrounded by. It was persistent and haunting, reverberating around her skull as if he were shouting into a cave, the echo crashing all around her, and yet he was barely moving his lips, voice scarcely more than a whisper.

He didn't answer her question. 

Her eyes bounced around him and the walls of Starkiller Base, wary of the Stormtroopers coming into view in the distance, blasters drawn up to their chest as a pair took patrol, turning a corner and out of sight. Her head swiveled toward beeping, the sound of droids whirring, and the distinct sound of spaceship moors settling into the depths of space, creaking and groaning. She was in sensory overload. She drew her attention quickly back to his face, brows drawn, dark eyes focused so sharply on hers she could swear he was looking past her.

“Can you see my surroundings?” Kylo looked over his shoulder and back to her, gloved hand quickly gesturing at the stone huts she stood in front of. “I can’t see yours." Eyes wide, assessing, _desperate_. "...only you.” Rey’s head spun.

“It doesn't matter,” she shouted, blood hot in her veins and pulse beating hard like a tattoo against her chest. 

“Why?” he muttered low, seemingly to himself, ignoring her commentary, instead focusing on the planes of her face. “This is something else.” Kylo Ren stepped forward, a large stride, only to vanish midstep, as Rey pulled the trigger on her blaster. 

Her intended target changed to one of the stone huts, the corner wall exploding with dust and stone, the outside brick crumbled to ash upon the ground. Two Lanai residents immediately emerged from their now damaged home, foreign curses directed at Rey as they assessed the damage of the blast, picking up bricks and shouting.

“What was that about?” Luke Skywalker said behind her, emerging quickly out of his own hut, steady on the stone steps that lead up to the mountain of their training ground, eyes curious. Rey’s heart jumped into her throat, visions of grey steel and black abruptly forced from thought as if she had been caught doing something wrong — the truth was on the tip of her tongue, nearly pushed out behind clenched teeth until one glance at Luke’s casual stance made her realize the placating tone was in reference to the Lanais’ hut, and not one Kylo Ren. 

Rey flexed her jaw and looked at the blaster damage, the image of inky hair and black, curious eyes suffocating her mind, truth buried down deep in her chest.

“Accidentally discharged my blaster.”

  
  


***

Rey settled into her cot for the night, her body sore and aching from Master Skywalker’s training. She finally convinced him to mentor her, albeit unorthodox, but her body ached with the memory of the effort she put into that morning. It had been well over a fortnight since she arrived — a steady montage of running up stone step mountainsides and climbing up short cliff faces to hone her endurance, hours of steady lightsaber training to hasten her footwork, and meditation to calm her mind and find the balance within it all.

Master Luke had all but offered praise with her current improvement. 

“Your body is strong, but your mind is ill at focus,” he told her earlier that evening, tapping her on the back of the head with a self-whittled staff he used to walk up the steep hills of the mountain. _Thunk._ He wrapped it with strips of grey cloth that a Lanai Caretaker gave him earlier that week — a thank you for sharing some of the cod he caught in the ocean and shared amongst the village days earlier. During drills with her lightsaber, Luke took to rapping it against her shins, light but sharp, to correct her footwork; she became accustomed to the small mirad of dull bruises that lined her calves, rubbing them with salve before retiring every night, hoping it would alleviate the ache. During meditation he resorted to tapping his staff against rock and stone as an irritating reminder of how much focus she lacked. “Push out the distractions,” he chided for the third time today.

She ground her teeth together.

_Tap. Thunk._

“I’m trying Master Skywalker.”

“Don’t allow your mind to wander. Focus.” Rey took a deep breath, tension in her shoulders eased, and she allowed her mind to float free of the sounds of Luke’s staff. Visions of the island fluttered past her eyelids, of clouds roaming over lush green trees and Porgs nesting on the island beaches, sun kissed cliffs and the cold lick of the ocean on rock faces.

“If you can’t look past a stick here, what makes you think you could summon the Force on the battlefield?” 

_Tap._

Images of birds flying overhead faded to the dank underground, of skeletons decaying and plants wilting and sprouting anew, trees filtered light along the soil in splotted patterns that faded to a dark recess of shadow amongst canopies of trees. 

_Thunk. Tap._

A cave bound in shriveled seaweed echoed behind her eyes — freezing cold saltwater bleached the entrance as crustaceans and mollusks burrowed into the depths. Stalactites clung tightly to the ceiling, needle sharp like a pin waiting to drop. 

_Thunk._

Black. Everything was black.

Rey snapped her eyes open, vision flooded with Luke Skywalker inches from her face tapping the side of the head with his handy staff, staring at her with mild disappointment. He stood straight, unruly hair floating around his cheeks as an evening breeze picked it up and filtered it over his features.

“Did you fall asleep?”

Rey’s heartbeat sped up, truth sealed tightly behind pursed lips. “Maybe.” Not quite a lie, not quite the truth. Her use of the Force was so vivid as of late, it was hard to discern her visions from dreams. She noticed the sun low in the sky, much lower than when she started her Force meditation — she must have been out here for hours. She wondered how long the visions lasted in comparison. Hours? Minutes? Or maybe merely seconds?

“Not that Force mediation is the epitome of fun,” he rolled his eyes, as if reliving some memory long past, “but if you want to hone your Jedi skills you must take this part of the training seriously.”

“I am!” Rey yelled, startled and taken aback by even a suggestion she wasn’t putting in her all.

“It’s balance, Rey. That’s what the Force is about. Your physical training is at its peak, the work with your lightsaber is improving everyday, but this —” he tapped the side of his head with his artificial hand, “— this is your weak point. Without it, you’re not balanced.”

She hung her head low. “...I’m aware.”

A short silence followed before a shuffle of feet brought her attention back up. Luke gathered his staff and bag, hands rummaging through his pack before tossing her a strip of jerky. “We’ll end training for today. The trek up here this morning was rough, and you're exhausted. Eat, rest, and we’ll start again at daybreak.”

She bit into the jerky, salty and tough just how she liked it, and nodded. The hike down the mountain was nearly as treacherous as the journey up. Luke wasn’t wrong — the morning run up the mountainside to their training ground was met with steady rain and a humid wind, and now in the lowlight of dusk, the cobbled stones and rocks were coated with the clinging grip of seawater. Luke stayed up on the cliffside to do his own meditation — she learned he preferred to do it at sunset, where the last dredges of light met the rock faces and the lively sounds of the island leveled to a low hum. She slipped on the slick stone path and briefly thanked the universe that Master Skywalker was not there to witness it.

“Graceful.”

Rey's whole body felt tugged by an invisible string to face him, a lead weight being pulled in his direction. 

Kylo Ren sat at the end of a short table, an almost unworldly metallic sheen to its surface, with a partially eaten plate of food in front of him — spiced leathermeat in a mix of stew and vegetables with a slice of hearty bread on the side. Her stomach growled, the jerky in her hands no longer quite as appealing. 

"No one asked," she said simply.

He leaned back in his chair and it dawned on her how odd it looked for one of the _supposedly_ most menacing men in the galaxy to be sitting down for dinner. 

"I'm merely making conversation with a guest." He prodded, putting a bite of food in his mouth, chewing slow and measured. If she were there, the whole plate would have been scarfed down by now. She could practically taste the meat, smell the spices and herbs of the stew —

"That's not necessary." There was a quick flicker in his pupils, the intensity giving way to an underlying exasperation. Smudges of purple lined his under eyes — from bruises or lack of sleep she couldn't tell, but they had only grown more intense since their first Force encounter.

"Considering your visits have been more frequent as of late, I think it's necessary."

It was true but she didn't want to admit it. Ever since she first saw him standing clear as day amongst the Lanai huts, she saw him nearly every day since. At first only a brief glimpse, enough to recognize his presence and acknowledge it before it was gone in an instant. Other days he was there for what felt like an eternity, form almost clinging to her, unwilling to let go. Since then, he appeared frequently and often — always under a circumstance when he was alone — an unpredictable daily occurrence.

"I don't understand why the Force is doing this any more than you do," she snipped. She trudged further down the cliffside, seeing the low lights from the huts flickering in the distance. If she ignored him, ignored their _connection_ maybe he would disappear, and the deep rooted sense of guilt and anger that settled in the hollow of her chest since their first visit would vanish.

Stray rocks practically pierced through the soles of her boots as she took less care in where she stepped, picking up her pace to reach her hut. If she could just _get away_ maybe the thread would snap and sever whatever bond the cosmos had deemed upon them. Rey practically sprinted the last leg of the way, slipping and sliding on the wet stone steps, humid air clinging to every part of her skin, wet and dripping, as if she had just clambered out of the ocean. She came upon her hut and bolted through the door slamming her back on it so loud her ears rang.

Rey looked at her empty hut. At the single cot covered with a grey rough spun blanket and the small firepit with a single, greasy pan from the morning's attempt at breakfast. The evening light had faded to a dull blue and drifted in through a sole window, smattering the inside with the first glow of moonlight, highlighting the bits of soft dust in the air. Quiet and quaint.

She sighed and closed her eyes, tilting her head back on the hard wooden door. Her head was finally clear of the buzzing, so she allowed herself to relax. She could feel every nick and scratch burn against her skin, and her muscles groaned with exhaustion, the dull ache of her calves and the tenderness in her feet settling into a deep ache. The humid air clung to her, and she could feel it crawling at the nape of her neck, curling the stray hairs there.

Rey pushed herself off the door and stumbled her way to the cot, somehow sliding out of her boots on the way. She all but collapsed onto her small bed, eyes closing immediately, sleep just a few moments out of reach.

A faded vision of black seaweed flashed before her eyes, stamped into her every thought, throbbing like a pulse. Buzzing filled her ears and a tug in her chest caused her to gasp for breath.

The vision seized up, zooming into a focal point that pressed at her eyelids and forced them open. Her hut was gone, and instead she was back at Starkiller Base, the harsh lights beaming down at her like a spotlight, hotter and stronger than before. She bolted upright in bed, it the only connection she had to ground her back to Ahch-To. The fabric of the cot scratched at her palms, but every other sense was that of Starkiller Base — the clinical harshness of the lights, the smell of cooked stew, the faintest waft of freshly used soap — 

Kylo Ren sat at his table, bowl of stew mostly empty, spoon placed delicately to the side on his now empty plate of bread and vegetables. He made no attempt at moving, simply watched as she found her bearings, eyes laser focused on her hands clutching the edge of her cot like a vice, knuckles white with tension.

Rey's attention drifted over to him, the immediate scowl that graced her features almost admirable.

"About that talk?"

Her shoulders slumped. Rey nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

***

"Did he tell you what happened? The night I destroyed his temple? Did he tell you why?" Kylo Ren stood in all black, scar pink across his cheek, lips red and raw as if he had been worrying at them. He was a pillar, tall and imposing across her Force vision, never moving.

Always there.

"I know everything I need to know about you," she snarled, as the rain slanted into a downpour and hit her face causing wisps of hair to curl and cling to her cheeks. Standing on the beach under the wing of her parked cruiser shielded her from most of the rainfall, but now that evening had set the tides of Ahch-to were beginning to get restless, lapping at her legs and seeping into her boots. It caused a sharp chill to run through her body.

She never took her eyes off him.

"You do?" he asked.

A pause. 

A step. 

His voice darkened, a low baritone echo across her consciousness that made her head swim. 

" _Ah_ , you do." 

He stopped short, head angling as the deep pools of his eyes worked over her face. He had noticed _something_. "You have that look in your eyes from the forest. When you called me a monster."

"You _are_ a monster!"

He leaned into her space, just so. His jaw tensed.

"Yes. _Yes I am_."

Luke swatted Rey’s hand with his staff and her mind came reeling back to the present, memory of black and red vanishing quickly. A bloom of pain rose up from her fingers to her forearm, and she rubbed it absently as Luke eyed her coolly.

"Focus,” Luke stated.

"Master Skywalker, I —"

"Your balance is off again." 

Rey sat down on the rough ground, her staff thrown to her side. The chill morning wind of the cliffside cooled the beads of sweat on her forehead. She was two hours into her morning meditation and what was _supposed_ to be training to strengthen her connection with the Force had turned into two hours of pretending she felt any connection at all.

Replaying her last conversation with Kylo over and over again wasn’t necessarily helping her concentration either...

The constant buzzing in her head and the tingling in her palms that let her know the connection was there, that the Force was right at her fingertips, had dimmed to nothing more than a faint hum throughout her body over the course of the morning. 

"I know."

"Do you?"

"I — yes, I do."

Luke crouched in front of her, hair swirling and robes swarming him in the morning breeze — the very vision of unruly. At just a glance, no one would ever suspect that he was _the_ man of legend; the man everyone whispered about on every planet across the galaxy. That even she, on the empty desert plains of Jakku, had heard stories of amongst the traders and slavers — the one with tales so fantastical she thought he was nothing more than a myth. Sometimes even she was hard-pressed to believe the tales, despite seeing how skilled he was in the Force. He smiled at her and her heart clenched.

_Did he tell you what happened?_ Kylo's voice echoed. She ignored it.

"Rey." Luke leveled with her, "you're using too much energy, and if you keep this up you'll never be able to finish the training and learn to balance the Force."

Rey's irritation spiked. _Force this, balance that_ . He was right, but it wasn't as if she wasn't trying —

"I know." Rey said matter-of-factly, dejected. She had been there for weeks and it was as if her progress had reached a plateau. She was training constantly, waking up early and going to bed late, meditating when she could and working on her lightsaber training in her spare time, and yet she felt like she had made zero progress.

"It's a combination: life and death, dark and light, every emotion and feeling and hopefulness and hopelessness one can feel. It's an all encompassing scale, and you're teetering too far to one side."

"Everyone keeps saying that like it's the easiest thing in the world to figure out."

"That's because the Force is the simplest, most basic concept of the universe. And yet that's what makes it the hardest to master."

Rey grit her teeth sharply. "I'm really trying Master Skywalker. But my connection...today it's...just not there. I can’t really concentrate."

Luke nodded, and with the tiniest of movements tapped his staff to her temple. "Like I said, you're using too much energy and tipping the scale."

"Then how do I _not_ tip the scale?" Rey asked, confused, rubbing her temple where his staff had prodded.

Luke smiled. "I have no idea, kid."

"Well, then how —"

Luke held up his hand to stop her short. "Reset the scale," he started, ignoring her wide eyes of protest and confusion. "Go explore the island, walk around, be in nature. Feel your surroundings. It'll do you more good than sitting here on this rock, listening to me yammering."

"I quite like the yammering."

Luke huffed, eyes rolling. "You make a terrible liar." 

Her sheepish grin must have given it away.

Luke stood, effectively dismissing her as he began his trek down back to the village, leaving her alone on the cliffside overlooking the ocean. 

"Reset the scale,” she murmured, rubbing her face with dirty palms, bits of dirt sticking to her cheeks.

The tides of Ahch-to crashed and settled against the tall cliffs and Rey watched as the water shimmered from the morning sun, bright and glittering. She grabbed a rock and chucked it as far as she could manage, hurling it off the cliff and straining to hear the _plop_ it would make once it hit the water's surface. It was no use — the tide was too loud, the birds too noisy, and with gritted teeth she spun on her heel.

"Reset the scale," she mouthed on her way down, kicking the rocks absentmindedly as she went along. "What the bloody hell does that mean?"

***

The forest was dense.

And damp.

Rey made her way out of a thicket of trees and practically ripped the snarled vines out that threatened to wrap and snag at her hair.

It was humid — different than the humidity she experienced standing on the beach or cliffsides of Ahch-to where the wind would whip and slice at her skin in waves of sticky heat broken up by the cool splash of air from the ocean. Here, in the dense depths of the island, the vegetation clung close, the dew hanging heavy on leaves like a damp cloth — the heat crawled up her whole body causing every inch of her outfit to cling to her in the most unpleasant way. She never thought she'd wish for the dry, desert heat of Jakku...

"Bloody jungle," she muttered under her breath. She had managed to find herself somewhere in the middle of the island, where the trees grew the thickest and the hum of the forest the quietest, but not without some headache. She was scratched head to toe — part in fault of not watching where she was stepping. _You could bloody see where you were stepping on Jakku, at least,_ she thought as she stumbled over a particularly well-hidden stump. Damp soil drenched her boots and thorns grabbed at her clothes, and for the umpteenth time she swatted at branches that dared to smack her in the face with every step.

Rey huffed, pausing for a moment to wipe stray hairs that loosed from her buns and clung to her cheeks. It was then that she felt the tug to her left — just an inclination to turn and start walking in that direction...

She broke free from a swath of brambles and stumbled upon a small clearing, lush with tall wisps of grass that tickled her shins. There was just enough of an opening in the forest canopy to let the sun sneak in, shining bright upon heaps of small rocks and big billowing leaves, highlighting fluffs of pollen and spiderwebs that glistened when she caught them at just the right angle. She sighed, the air here cooler than before, allowing a respite from the suffocating heat.

Rey breathed deep as she stepped into the clearing and sat upon a short, smooth rock in its center — it was surprisingly cold on her hands, the cool moss beneath her fingertips causing gooseflesh to raise on her arms. She felt such an overwhelming sense of peace sitting there. The chirps of the birds were low and vibrant, and the crashing waves of the ocean were now silent, replaced with the small whistle of the wind dancing through the forest floor. Sitting in the serene quiet, she was overcome by how much green there was — besides her brief visit on Takodana, this was the most green she had ever seen in her life. She never knew there were so many variations of the same color — dark and dull, pale and bright, pastel and crisp — it was like she was swathed in emerald and she had never felt more calm and at ease.

She settled upon the rock and crossed her legs, breathing deep, eyes drifting closed. _Reset the scale_ , her mind echoed. Thoughts of her trek here faded from her mind, the ache in her legs, the dirt caked on her face, the tumbles she took from all her missteps through the forest. Everything was forgotten and the overwhelming sense of tranquility that ran through her mind and body was the only thing she could sense now. 

_Oh.  
_

_There it is._

She felt the small start of electricity in her fingertips and the smooth, calming wave that swept from head to toe. Her limbs felt as if they were humming and she sighed — this is what she was missing this morning during her Force meditation — the pure sense of connection.

Rey could feel it again, the Force, and the way it flowed through her like a wave. Her mind felt like it was floating. Her palms grazed over the boulder beneath her and the rough pebbles rattled under her fingertips as if they had a mind of their own. She felt as if she were adrift.

Visions flooded her once again: she saw stars all jumbled up into one, blurry at first, but slowly stirring and beginning to take shape. She saw a canopy of trees and big overarching leaves that drowned out all sunlight. She could smell saltwater and hear waves crashing as if she were on the beach, could almost feel the sand beneath her toes. Clouds grazed cliff faces and birds dove below them in a sweeping dance, feathers fluttering in the chilled air. Flowers and grass sprouted in damp soil, in low lit places, writhing to meet the sunlight — bugs and mites crawled and skittered atop tree bark and fallen leaves. 

Her vision swirled and morphed into whirling wind and rain, and a flash of lightning, the sound of the thunder silent to her ears. Grey skies and black seaweed stamped behind her eyelids once again causing her to shiver. It was drawing her in, a single lone echo in the back of her mind that dared her to see beyond —

"What are you doing?"

Rey's eyes snapped open and Kylo Ren stood in front of her once again, eyes roving over her form, almost startled. He was in training gear — dressed in a lighter black tunic of his usual uniform, saber in hand, unignited. He looked to be in a similar room as his quarters, the walls stark and white, with woven mats lining the floor. It was practically empty...

"...I..." Rey shook her head to gather her bearings, and faced him again, teeth gritted. "What are you doing here?"

He shifted back slightly as if surprised at her question. He looked over his shoulder and then turned his attention back to her. "Me? I’m not the one who initiated this."

He was lying, using their bond to try and gather intel on her training, find out her location, any sort of information he could find. She was _sure_ of it. There's no way she would initiate anything with him… but he looked lost, eyes bouncing around her face, eyebrows pulled together...maybe...

"Like I should take your word on that."

"This coming from someone not yet adept at the Force, but it's as if you're screaming your every emotion into the sky. Any Force user in the galaxy could sense you." Kylo started, eyes flicking past her shoulder and then back to her quickly.

"If I could control it I would." she ground out, standing up. Rocks and grass crunched beneath the soles of her boots, but all she could smell was the oil of spaceship moors mixed with sweat from his training. She watched his hand tighten on his saber, but he didn't move an inch. “As of right now, that doesn’t seem to be the case for either of us.” She recalled their first Force bond and the shock both of them had at seeing one another across space and time. At the complete and utter disbelief of seeing the enemy mere feet away, almost tangible.

"The Force is connecting us, but the ‘why?’ seems to be rather...elusive.”

“We’ve had this conversation.” Her head was swimming. If she could get him to stop talking for a moment...

“And it’s worth still trying to figure out. You shut me down last time.” 

“Can you blame me?” 

Spinning...

He leaned back ever so slightly. “You were going to anyway.”

"Maybe it thinks I can make you turn?!" she snapped, watching him stiffen almost imperceptibly, pleased she got some sort of reaction. His eyes roved hers like a hawk and while he towered over her like prey would, even with the short distance between them, she didn't feel threatened.

Kylo paused, voice low and deep and reverberating in every hollow of her consciousness. "Or maybe I can make you turn?"

A hint of a question, a hint of a promise —

Rey’s heart skipped as a flash of black seaweed and an underground cave slammed to the forefront of her mind. She remembered when she first had the vision and recalled the panic in Luke’s voice during training as he screamed about her going straight to the dark side with no hesitation. She swallowed hard.

"You're doing it again." Kylo dragged a gloved hand down his face, wiping sweat away from his brows, almost as if he were in pain. "Loud...perceptively _you_." All she could do was watch the way he clenched his glove together, the tight leather rubbing together so loud in her ears.

"This doesn't exactly come with an instruction manual," Rey frowned, reminded of Luke's speech from this morning. _Reset the scale._

_How, Luke? How?!_

His head inclined towards her as if noticing something peculiar, his eyebrows pulling together the slightest bit. "You're thinking too hard. Too loud."

"I didn't ask."

"Take my advice or no," he ground out, impatient, "but if you want more control over _this,"_ he signaled between the two of them, "that's what it's going to take."

In a bold move, Rey stepped forward just a few feet from where he stood. From here, she could see the beads of sweat roll down his cheeks and the way it made his hair curl tight to his face. It was odd, to see him so close without his mask. She recalled the wild look in his eyes from the forest, their lightsabers connecting and illuminating in such a sharp shade of purple she thought she imagined it. Now, he simply stared back, the brown of his irises broken up by the harsh fluorescents of his training room — white, plain, _empty_ —

"Why do you care?" 

"Don't move," Kylo's voice rumbled in her head. His line of sight shifted beyond her.

“Wha—?”

“General Hux,” Kylo stated, harsh and cold.

Rey stiffened and then gasped as a man with blazing red hair phased through her body, drifting past like a ghost, not the slightest inclination to her presence. She stumbled backwards, falling as she watched Hux approach Kylo, words coming out of his mouth but not reaching her ears. Before she could hit the ground, Kylo took one last glance in her direction before he turned on his heel and walked away, Hux trailing close behind him, both fading from sight.

Kylo didn't say a word, but as she watched his form fade as their Force bond severed, she could suddenly feel it, exactly as he had stated.

_'It's as if you're screaming_ _your every emotion into the sky.'_

It was loud, and reverberating off him in waves —

Anxiousness. 

Fear.

_Huh._

***

“Any luck?” Luke asked Rey later that night, hunched over the fire pit outside his hut — he was turning over some sort of fish that was now charred and currently being devoured. He must have spent his afternoon spear-fishing by the cliffs. Her stomach rumbled. The questionable berries she found on her hike back didn't make so much as a dent to her appetite, and seeing the pile of fish Luke caught sent her stomach into a chorus of growls.

She sat down next to him, sprawling her legs out in front of her, grateful for the warmth from the fire. “Some progress, yeah.” He silently handed her a cooked fish and she nodded in gratitude, mouth immediately taking a bite without hesitation. It was warm and salty, and she sighed in the simplicity of how good it was.

“I’d hope so,” Luke said, pointing to all of her, gesturing particularly to the rips and tears and the sheer amount of dirt that covered her. 

“Listen,” she smiled, making no attempt to brush off any dirt or grime. “I’m used to running around in the desert. I didn’t have a chance out there today.”

Luke huffed and he wolfed down another huge bite. “Reset the scale yet?” he asked nonchalantly, not particularly paying attention to how she stared off into space at the question.

Rey sat in silence for a moment, watching at how deep and bright the fire glowed against the night sky. 

“Something like that.”


End file.
